Big Bro Steven
by Mystique84
Summary: Following the adventures of Crystal warrior Steven Universe and his wards, the Gemlings, Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst. They're... a little new, sure, but they're gonna be *superheroes* someday. He's just gotta train them. Inspired by the Tumblr, Big Bro Steven.
1. Map

Chapter 1

The Gemlings

Steven was alone, completely and absolutely alone.

Obviously he had been alone for quite some time before that but it was moving back to the temple and his mother' and father's home that it kinda struck him. Steven was not your ordinary human being, nope, he was a Crystal Gem, the last (and not even 'pure blood' as some insulted) Crystal Gem. He was the final protector of Earth and all her marvels with his Rose Quartz Gem where his belly button should be.

And he was alone to carry on the mighty task of protecting a whole planet.

At a few hundred years old he had moved around a lot. His last home destroyed (there were a lot of monsters, part of the job description) he decided it was finally time to find his roots once more, back at Beach City (not really Beach City when he was young but that's another story).

He and his faithful pink companion, Lion, were exploring the caverns of the long forgotten Temple. The monumental woman stood strong from years of forgotten management and his childhood home had started to crumble but still she sat resilient. Paintings and books still sat covered in dust and webs as he picked them at random. He laughed at the lute, the memory of a song his father used to woo his mother, completely ridiculous, Steven laughed at the memory and placed the lute back down with melancholy. He found himself in his mother's old study, Rose Quartz's portrait had not degraded like many other artefacts and Steven mentally noted he had to place this in his new home once it was finished.

Looking through his mother's books something fell to the floor, Steven's brow raised. It was an odd map, no X mark the spot but 3 different coloured spots of different shapes and pattern. It had no visible location, so no telling where heaven or earth this could be, but looking at the book Steven accidently dropped it from, it was from the last journal Rose was working on before her passing. So obviously unfinished business.

Meaning, it's his duty to carry on her work. He picked up the journal, looking for clues on the location of these….whatever these things were but his mother had used one of her many languages that Steven had yet to learn. Her thousand years of age made her a wise woman, he thought as he gazed once more at her portrait.

And an adventure was an adventure.

OooO

He and Lion had been wandering in the sandy desert for close to 3 days now. The Teleporter could only take them so far, so instead he spent day and night walking. Lion was strong and took most of the water and food on his back while Steven tried to read the map. The harsh light of day making him thank mom for his rose tinted sunglasses.

Lion growled.

"I know Lion, but we gotta find this….whatever it is! It must be important if mom kept the map safe." He scratched his pink furred buddy behind his ear, "Come on, just a few more hours and we can set up camp for the night, kay?" he said.

Lion agreed and picked up his pace. Steven smiled and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He stepped over a fallen head of a temple priestess, so that meant that with Lion's sand power he could probably find the teleporter under all that sand.

Steven pulled out his pen and marked it on the map. There was a closer location to teleport home so far and still he had yet to find the damn thing he was searching for. Steven cursed at the map maker for not making the map more detailed.

He would wait until after they found the artefact then tell Lion there was a closer Teleporter. Not a second before. Nope.

Lion was totally bite Steven's butt for that.

Steven jogged a few steps to catch up with Lion and saw something in the far distance that might just be what they were searching for. About a hundred miles from the last teleporter and even further from any monument that any possible tourist or Gem may visit, there seemed to be a….crater…

It doesn't sound like much right now but after traveling across flat plains of sand for close to 2 and a half days, a hole in the ground was something unusual. Above ground stuff? Like fallen buildings? Nothing unusual, that was stuff left over from battles centuries ago, but holes? Not easily made. Or kept.

Steven looked at his Lion and winked and activated his Gem, his magnificent rose shield landed in front of him like a board and Steven jumped on it and without words, they rode down the sandy mountain. For the first time in days Steven laughed, it was joyful to do something so freeing. He surfed the metaphorical waves till he managed to land, flipping the shield and absorbing it within his gem again. The sun would set within the next hour so he wanted to try and make it to the now obvious huge CRATER in the ground. He totally wanted to see what was in that baby! Was it like a moon rock, or treasure? Or a totally rad weapon! That would be so sweet!

"Come on Lion, just a bit further!" he called as the both struggled up the hill. The sun sparkled and blood red sky shone across the sky as Steven finally walked (fell) down the crater of the now apparent meteor. This was it. He took off his sunglasses and saw the magnificent meteor for the true colours it showed.

It was a graunchy red colour, shades of burgundy and maroon, but not a speck of sand on it, a protective shield must of kicked in, Steven noted. Lion moaned as the shield stopped him from coming inside, "Sorry buddy, just wait there." Lion nodded but watched with steel eyes. Steven felt something deep in his Gem, this was going to be something amazing alright. Steven reached forward but as his hand got closer the rock burned him, "Ouch." He muttered. Thinking, he took off his makeshift bandanna and tied it around his hand and touched the rock.

That's when Steven's life changed forever.

As the sky sparkled ruby and garnet red above him and his pink gem glowed on his stomach, the meteor split open. Emitting hot lava like steam from within, Steven couldn't look away for something precious within was glinting.

Jewels upon jewels lined the inside of the large meteor, glittering like bug shells but that's not what captured Steven's attention for the most precious of all things appeared before him. A baby girl.

A Gemling.

A baby Crystal Gem.

Steven gasped. He thought he was the last, but…but here she is. The last pure gem.

She was perfect, a darkskinned baby girl with a third eye and what looked like Garnets embedded in her hands. She had luscious lips and strong arms and legs that started to kick slightly as she opened her multi-coloured eyes. One blue, the other red and for a second the 3rd opened and it blinked many, many colours. Steven leaned forward and peered at the girl and she stared back, before she started to fuss as more boiling steam poured into the air.

"Oh geeze" Steven said, coping her movements of fists and raised arms and panicked face. "Oh man." Steven's brain went into overdrive as he made a decision. If this was what was waiting at the end of the first location then she, this child, must not be the last of the Gems. "I'm sorry! Are you okay? Sorry!" he told the child as she calmed herself in his large hands.

Steven cradled her to his chest as she stared at him, his duty now clear, the final task handed down to him from his mother. Find these precious gems and care for them. For they were the next generation. "I got you…"

And his family.

OooO

It was a blur the next few days but those hours after finding the baby were forever marked in his mind, Steven fashioned a sling out of a clean bandage and gave the child his hand to hold and his sunglasses. They slipped off her small face but he would rather fail protecting her 3 small eyes then not try at all. Lion sniffed at the baby and immediately knew what Steven needed, a ride, he rode fast to the fallen temple that he directed Lion to and Lion dug them home. As they arrived back home and finally sat on the beat up old couch Steven looked at the baby and the baby looked at him.

He guessed that the meteor fell from space, some old legends say that they can fall from space, or come from underground and lie dormant for years. He guessed the baby had been sleeping in there for centuries, just waiting for Steven or someone like him to wake her up. Just waiting for another Gem to activate the waking spell of sorts.

Lifting the sunglasses the baby peered at him with 3 eyes and he blinked back with his two. "A baby." He told the baby and the air at large. "I thought you would be a piece of crummy temple…but…I have…you." He said, tickling under her chin. Her eyes sparkled a little and a small smile graced her face. He wooshed out a breath of air as the baby played with the rose tinted sunglasses further, "I need help." He told the photograph of his mom and dad. The baby let out smack noise as her gem made contact with the sunglasses and Steven remembered something. He forgot to name the baby!

Oh geeze he was an idiot!

Tradition was that Gemlings were named for the gems, so, as the baby stared at the glasses and Steven traced her gems, Steven held her up.

"Hey baby." He said, "How do you feel about the name Garnet."

Garnet stopped playing with the glasses and stared at him. And smiled. Steven laughed. He got up from the couch and ignoring his 3 days sweaty smell, he had some work to do. He and Garnet had a home to make.

The temple was temporary home of one Steven Universe, Lion and Garnet Gem, for the last year. However about 6 months ago all three moved into the now rebuilt beach home. It was much bigger than the home Steven grew up in as Steven estimated that the other two locations on the map might hold another gem.

In that last year Garnet had grown from quiet baby to quiet toddler, Steven never experienced the terrible toddler years the other day care parents complained about. But…he still had a while to go. But Garnet was a beautiful child.

Garnet loved the colour red and seemed to pick up reading quickly although talking was an issue, but Steven thought that was because she didn't want to, not because she couldn't. She was intelligent and although emotionally distant at times, loved to just hold Steven's hand as he read to her.

She expressed herself through actions, so after playing around with her gems and making gestures at Steven's, Steven decided it was time to go find the white coloured gem. Being different was hard on Garnet and although she was strong, it was finally time to go after the next gem. 9 months of planning and it was today.

Steven opened up the nursery as Garnet played with blocks, her mop of black hair covered her third eye and was slowly covering the rest. The rose tinted sunglasses sat up on Garnet's bed side table next to her bed (she refused to sleep in a crib past her first birthday). He sat on the floor and Garnet toddled over to him with a red ball, she sat down a few feet from him and pushed the ball, Steven smiled and rolled the ball back.

"Garnet." He said, he got a nod in response "Steven has got to leave for a few days…he's looking for another meteor. Remember, like the one I found you in?" he said. Steven recalled that he went back for the meteor shell and put it in the heart of the temple so Garnet could have it later.

Garnet looked up and her red and blue eye looked bright and excited. "Gem?" she asked.

Steven nodded, "Yeah, I'm looking." Garnet gave him a rare smile and stood on shaky legs, before running to Steven. She threw her arms around him and hugged his neck. Steven chuckled and hugged the baby back.

He hoped to the heavens that it was another Gem, he really didn't want Garnet to be the only Gemling. Looking at those old rose tinted sunglasses he knew he would be lucky.

For Garnet.

OooO

This was the longest he was away from Garnet.

Kiki and Jenny's parents who owned the 'Fish Stew Pizza' were looking after her as a favour to their favourite customer (and the man who saved their restaurant from a giant jellyfish monster thing but that's another story). He was totally the worried parent right now, he was pretty anxious he didn't have cell phone connection. Did they know if Garnet wasn't sleeping it was normal for a Gem and she would sleep the next night? And she doesn't need to eat but she sort of liked to suck on cherries, but no pits! Ah did he write all of this down? Yeah he probably did, but did he highlight the important stuff.

FOCUS STEVEN!

Mountain climbing is a focused task! Come on Steven. Get your head out of the clouds! Lion didn't join him this time, he didn't like the cold, so he had a huge back pack on. But he made sure to bring some baby stuff, just in case. But he didn't try to hope to high. Just in case. It was be the most amazing thing if another baby was in this next meteor.

Steven finally made it to the top of the mountain and like last time, "Aw man, really?" he whined. Another teleporting station. He grumbled to himself as he pulled out the map and uncapped the pen with his mouth. Through the goggles he saw that high up, extremely, high up. "Damn." Was a shielded area on a flat plain of rock and snow. Reaching into his back pack his pulled out his mom's old rope gun. He shot up high and the Rose Quartz embedded itself into the mountain, two ropes on each side of his hip attached himself to the mountain. And started to final climb to the meteor.

It was absolutely the hardest thing he ever tried to do, he was a beach kind of guy. Not snow. Nope. He was almost there when he saw it, the snow had made a small nest around the unprotected part of it and Steven just knew it. He felt something in his Gem. Sort of like when he first got close to the meteor of Garnet's.

Jogging over to the meteor Steven just knew it, his gem blasted rose and snow storm swirled. He slipped and fell on his face as he ran to the meteor but he stumbled and got back up and finally got to it as the meteor split apart.

She rose into the sky as her meteor sparkled white on the inside. She was different to Garnet, while Garnet remained inside and spurt heat and lava, this baby sparkled "I got you." He told her, as he guided his hands under her "I got you." She was a small thing with soft alice blue skin and soft red hair and a large pearl in the middle of her hair. But the strange thing was she had yet to wake.

Steven finally managed to grab hold of her and held her in his hands, so big compared to her. Her skinny little arms and legs trembled as Steven held her close as Steven traced her face, her skin felt like ice but she had a large pointed nose which was cute. Steven smiled at the small girl but felt his heart sink, something was terribly wrong.

Steven felt her heart but it was slow and he started to panic, he had to warm her up. He opened up his jacket and pulled off his scarf and wrapped up the girl as best he could. "Come on, I got you." He whispered, keeping her warm. Gemlings, why wasn't there any information on Gemlings. Could they freeze? He didn't know that was a thing. He shivered slightly as cold hands gripped and ungripped.

Wait.

What?

Steven ducked his head into the jacket and saw a white glow from inside, and two blue eyes. He opened up his jacket slightly and the baby looked at him. Wrapped up in his scarf and with one hand in his back pack Steven dug out a little baby hat, shoes and blanket.

She was okay.

Steven smiled.

Pearl. Pearl was okay.

OooO

Garnet was a proud big sister, although she didn't often show it. She defended Pearl at Day Care (parent teacher meetings were not cool) and Pearl proved to be a princess if there was one. While Garnet wore only red or red tinted clothes, Pearl would love to wear dresses. Making it a bit difficult to be a guardian to two girls.

Man, it was tough, two different personalities but they were both sweet and intelligent girls. Although Garnet skipped the terrible twos Pearl had was starting and if you turned off any of her music or videos while she was watching it she would scream bloody murder. And god help you if you walked in front of Princess Tutu.

Steven still had nightmares. Oh God, he hated that show.

But no violence so that was good. But she was sweet, most of the time, she coloured butterflies and dress up with Garnet, she was still skinny and pale and blushed bright blue so hot food was always a must. At 2 and a quarter, she was pretty smart, pretty well coordinated.

And maybe about to get a little Gemling sibling.

Once again the girls were left with Jenny and Kiki's family, the girls adored playing princesses with Pearl. Garnet was forced to play prince.

Lion and Steven were off to the Jungle to find the last meteor. "In the jungle the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight!" Steven started to sing off key again, Lion slapped him in the back of the head with his tail. "Hey!" he said, rubbing the back of his head. "Fine I'll stop singing it."

Lion raised his brow as if it say, 'It's been like a day man, stop singing that song.'

"Sorry Lion, but….seriously!? Again!" Steven said, stomping his foot on the ground, about a mile from his view. Above the tree tops he could see a gem Mina temple, meaning….another teleporter close by. "You know what. Whatever." He trudged through the mud and grumbled. "3 out of 3 you gotta be kidding me, I hate this map so much!"

A few more hours of trekking through the jungle and finally, under a rockslide and covered in mud, they found the last meteor. The shield must have started to malfunction as the field was smaller. But the meteor was still safe, albeit harder to get to. Steven gritted his teeth. "Okay Lion. Thought this might happen."

"Okay." He said again, slipping on his raincoat and a torch to his head. Steven had his shield out and prepped himself, he had to do this, the shield could collapse anytime between now and the end of the century. Okay Steven, you can do this.

"3, 2, 1. GO!" he dived under the rockslide and using his shield he held up the rockslide "Aaaaahhhhhhh." The strain on his arms was enormous as Lion tried his best to hold up the rocks he could, Steven slipped and his face. He pushed the rock up, begging it wouldn't open while under there. With a huge kick and mud splattered, he rolled out from the rockslide as it fell and the meteor split open.

Purple gas spewed from inside and a child cried, "I got you" Steven told the child, looking inside. Sweat and mud covered his face but he reached inside and pulled out a little purple baby girl. She squirmed and reached for him, her lavender hair clung to her face, "I got you." He told her, he said, holding her to his shoulder. Her chubby legs and arms calmed and she gripped tight to Steven's shirt, he pulled her back to look at her (also holding onto his shirt still). She had rich lips and big eyes and a large purple Amethyst in the middle of her chest.

"I got you baby girl, I got you Amethyst."

OooO

It had been almost a week now since Steven had bought home the new and last Gemling, Amethyst, or Amy (as Pearl and Garnet called her). She was a happy kid, loved to eat, but Steven just laughed and thought about himself as a baby, his mom and dad must have had all the same troubles. Amethyst was a little different, chubby and funny and giggly, totally a normal baby opposed to quiet Garnet and thoughtful Pearl.

Garnet didn't really understand Amethyst as well as Baby Pearl, but Steven could tell she liked Amethyst, in her own way. And Pearl, well, Pearl was clearly jealous but as long as Pearl had her own way, she was happy, and Amethyst didn't mind playing dress up or letting Pearl do her hair.

This was Steven's new family, he was many hundreds of years old and lost many companions over the years but these guys would stand by his side long after him. They would protect the world and carry on the Crystal Gem tradition and hopefully the memory of those that came before them, especially the one that lead him to them, his mother.

As Steven fed Amethyst, still a chubby purple baby, a 4 and 3 quarters year old with a mop of black hair and magenta sweater climbed into his lap and clung to him, Steven ruffled her hair. A skinny 2 year pulled herself up onto the couch and managed to squeeze herself into the picture, Steven chuckled to himself, the Crystal Gems were one day going to be the greatest saviours of Earth but for now they were his.

His girls.

His Gemlings.

OooO

**AN aaaaaahhhh done, omg, finally. I was writing this while watching Sanctuary and in class so multitask. AH, originally inspired by the amazing tumblr Big Bro Steven and I hope to write many more chapters when I find time. This was cute to write but I can't wait to write more when they can talk and it's a bit more interaction. I had a bit of a running gag that Steven would trek for days then find a teleporter closer to the meteor because I never got the map, I don't understand how the Gems travel yet and till I do I'm just gonna play around and blame the map. So hope the next chapter is a bit more the skip into the next 7 years and random stuff happening. I figured that Steven would actually do research if he was a few hundred years old so that's why he knew what Pearl and Amethyst were so quickly. **

**And you may have guessed that the Rose tinted sunglasses are going to be the sunglasses that older Garnet wears, but they originally belonged to Rose. **

**Art belongs to the blog Big Bro Steven, please Visit!**


	2. Brand New Day

Brand New Day

At 7 in the morning it should be peaceful at a beach front home, the sea crashing against dry sand, seagulls battling over the first dead jellyfish of the day, shop keepers were getting in the fresh produce while places like Big Doughnut pour hot coffee. People like Steven turned over in his sleep. No waking up early for training. Today is a very good day.

Until Pearl and Amethyst started on their almost daily ritual "Amethyst no! No! No! No! Sailor Moon is on! You know that's my turn for tv!" Pearl was shrieking.

Steven groaned, every Saturday like clock work since that stupid Sailor Moon started again, it was the same argument every Saturday morning, different from the breakfast debate and the training conflicts, this was the television war.

Amethyst knew full well what she was doing, she probably didn't even want to watch what was on right now, but she just looooved wind Pearl up. And screw up Steven's morning. That was just a bonus for her. Steven groaned again as footsteps pounded the floor and his door swung open. "STEEEEVEEENNN!" Pearl whined as she clambered onto the bed, also trying to kick Amethyst off, who also tried to get up. "Amy is being an-an annoying purple butt!" Steven tried not to smile, a thump as Amethyst got kicked off again, her small 7 year old body making a bigger sound than it should.

"Ahhh! Stop it!" Amethyst cried, "Steven, she's lyin', I was up waaay before you."

"No I'm not! You're a liar! You woke up 10 minutes ago! Why do you always do this! Steven!"

The girls started to jostle him and he laid still before "ROAAAARRRR!" he yelled. grabbing both of them and taking them under the blanket with him.

The fight was forgotten as the girls screamed and giggled. This is what he liked about kids, a lot of arguments were solved this way, a donut or hug or doing something like this always won the argument. He laughed with the girls as he tickled them and just generally played around until he finally playfully pushed them up and announced that due to the early morning wake up, it was dealer's choice pancakes. Both girls raised their hands in the air "YAY!" they yelled as they ran off to go wake Garnet.

Steven laughed again and rubbed the back of his head before finally pulling back the blanket. His room he slept in was in the beach house as he still wasn't ready to let the girls have full reign of the Temple. Maybe Pearl and Garnet but Amethyst? No way! She was enough trouble walking around town by herself let alone in a great mystical stone temple thousands of years old, so he used his gem to lock it and had him and the girls sleep in the beach house. Not that he could complain as he looked out the window at the beautiful view before him.

Steven yawned again and rummaged around on the ground for his dropped starry dressing robe to fight the chill of the morning without the protection of his blanket, that wasn't it, nope, old shirt, pants, no, shoe, that was a doll. He needs to clean his room. There it is!

He pulled it on and hit his head on the bed knob before a shriek and a shatter could be heard downstairs. "No rest for the wicked" he told himself as he passed a picture of himself and the 3 girls shortly after Amethyst's pick up. The house had changed a lot in the last 7 years, the hall from his room to the main living area had a few baby and older Gemlings pictures and some crayon and marker drawings on the walls from where the youngest of the Gems had been an artist. Neatly sat collections of seashells were always on the hallway tables and decorative hand drawn pictures using a variety of other forms of art hung. Just before Steven entered the kitchen he passed by a shelf that was just starting to make itself known with it's many first place trophies, blue ribbons various other awards given to the girls for talents from academics to sport, ballet to soccer.

Steven made it into the kitchen to find that Garnet was trying her best to scowl at Pearl, which was hard to do with her mop of dark hair over her eyes. "Sorry!" Pearl pleaded. She was on the floor in her delicate pink slippers picking up blueberries, "Sorry Garnet. I just wanted to help."

"Steven told you that you were too short to reach that high without the foot stool." Garnet chided her, handing her a broom, keeping Amethyst back as she was eating choc chips.

"Guys what happened?" Steven asked softly.

Pearl freaked out again and blushed cyan, dropping the berries she picked up and onto the floor again. Garnet turned to face Steven and he saw that she had made sure that both she and Amy were wearing shoes. "You told her that she could help in the kitchen if she was using the footstool. She refused, slipped, and smashed the bowl with her blueberries." She explained. Pearl blushed further and stood up and swiped the broom and quickly cleaned away the berries.

"Fine! I won't have pancakes!" she pouted, and just for good measure, Amethyst threw a choc chip at her nose. Oh no. Oh Steven recognised the signs, stomping feet, high blush and now watering eyes, time to move old man.

Steven rushed over and pulled the broom away and pulled Pearl into his side, she tucked her head into his neck and let out a wet snuffle, he motioned for Garnet to take Amethyst away as he picked up Pearl. She was a little thing, still thinking about the day he found her, her little body was so cold and blue. Steven rocked her a bit as he heard Garnet get out the rest of the stuff for pancakes and told off Amy for eating all the chocolate.

Pulling back her short hair Steven looked at the little girl's eyes and pearl, she had snot running down her beaky nose and looked absolutely miserable but it was a vision of cute. Steven couldn't help but let out a soft smile. "Pearl, it was an accident, I know that. It was my fault, I shouldn't have left them in a porcelain bowl." Pearl just rubbed her eyes, Steven thought she might be impressed with his knowledge of kinds of bowls, she was obsessed with that sort of thing. "and I got some more, it won't be an overload on blueberries but you'll still have awesome dealer's pancakes."

Pearl slammed her pearl against his chest and mumbled, "Really?"

"Really." He teased her with a ruffle of her strawberry hair.

"Garnet was really mad at meeeee." She whimpered.

Steven rubbed circles into her back as he gazed over at the other two in the kitchen. No cooking as of yet but Garnet was measuring and mixing, she was very adapt at being an adult in the house. "She was upset because you could have gotten hurt, and she was scared that I would blame her." Pearl moved her head so she too was now gazing into the kitchen and Steven noted her brows furrowing.

"You're right." She admitted, "I'm not tall enough to reach and almost hurt myself and ruined breakfast." Steven was so glad Pearl was so reasonable….most of the time. She saw her faults. She made to go back to the kitchen but Steven stood up with her still in his arms.

"How about because you admitted your mistake, you can help flip the pancakes."

And that brightened up her whole day as she laughed and got into a better position on his hip. Garnet looked over, nodded and gave a soft smile while Amethyst….threw another choc chip.

**OK so it's basically the most random chapter ever! LOL, but I am taking requests for one shot adventures of the gems. I am in love with them but I don't think I have the time or energy to write a whole story of them as babies so one shots it is. So if can be your own idea, a question or whatever. Just send it in. **


	3. Connie

It was a bright sunny day, middle of summer and all, so it was a beach day! Steven was thankful that the Temple stopped a lot of the tourists from hopping over and into their quiet area, this was sort of where Beach City knew that the Gems liked to have their privacy. Steven threw open the door with a slam and smelt the salty air and heard the smash of the sea waves. His usual star shirt replaced with bare chest and star speckled board shorts and matching towel. He picked up the beach bag and with flip flops on hobbled down the wooden stairs and onto the hot sand. He went a good couple of meters away from the temple and where a few of her fallen hands would give him shade, he dropped everything he carried down on the ground with less of a crash and more a smosh as sand doesn't really have a sound.

He placed everything perfectly as he heard the girls scramble out of the house. Amethyst ran full pelt for the ocean, "Last one in is a rotten egg!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Not to be beaten, Pearl and Garnet ran after her and splashed into the water, it was all in good fun and Steven got to thinking about the girls and the weird world they lived in. Not weird for everyone else, but for them, he loved them dearly but they were different for sure. He tried to get them to integrate with the society, the girls had the benefit of both worlds, at least Steven had tried. As the girls played in the ocean and Garnet started to toss Amethyst into the water as a game Steven remembered when he thought school was a good idea. He always wanted to try it but it was a bit of a failure. Steven had no idea what to do since he never went, and placing them all at once at the same school just exploded. Almost literally!

Pearl was best in class and the other girly students liked her but she lost her temper, her Gem glowed and the others kids didn't think it was normal at all. Garnet was pushed beyond her limit, Steven tried to teach her to read and write but she wouldn't interact with the other students and the boys tried to start a fight. Amethyst was the worst, she fit in well with the kids but a torture to the teachers. The girls met up at lunch and when one of the boys tried to pick on Pearl, Garnet and Amethyst exploded. So, school was a no go and Steven tried to get someone out once a week to tutor the girls separately, just to get the basics. Maybe they could try again when the girls were a bit older and settled.

That's what his problem was in the past, the other kids were scared of his mother and father for their different ways, and the Gems unluckily just had kids in a large group push them around. They, he and the gems, were better off alone. A few people in but no one close enough.

He heard a small squeak, strange…..and whipped his head around, "AHHH!" he yelled in fright when all he could see were two giant eyes!

"AHH!" a little girl yelled back, she was looking around a rock and ducked back behind it. Steven looked over to the girls and saw them playing, so he got up to investigate. He looked around the temple hand and saw….nothing.

Odd, there was someone here! Then he looked closer and saw a small shoe print in the sand. The large gem quickly and silently looked on the opposite side of the rock and saw a two bright eyes staring back at him. "AHHH!" she yelled again. She ducked around again but left her book on the sand.

Steven picked it up, 'How to get the ropes on Boats' he mumbled to himself. He held the book out around the rock side, "Sorry kid if I scared you, just, no one comes around here."

"I know, that's why it's nice to come here." She answered back. Steven looked around the rock once more and saw that the girl now sat on the ground. "I've seen you guys but….I didn't know you would live here. On this beach I mean." She told him.

"You've seen us?" Steven asked as he sat down to hand her the book. "When?"

"When you stopped like a huge monster from destroying the town! It was awesome." She said in awe and her eyes sparkled behind large glasses.

"You should thank me." Demanded Amethyst, stomping her foot on the ground and getting sand on the both of them, both Steven and the girl yelled in fright at the sudden appearance of the purple girl. They both laughed at the silly face Amethyst pulled at them in return.

Steven smirked, "I should have kept you away you feral thing!" he joked as he pulled her down, her soaking body wetting his shirt but it stopped her from stomping again. "Well, if you live here in Beach City that long, why haven't I seen you before?" he asked.

"I move a lot, but Dad says he might stay now….and….and…" she said, pausing as she looked to the sea and saw Garnet and Pearl making a sand castle now, he let Amethyst go so she could play again. "I'm scared because I don't have any friends anywhere! And now I'm finally here, in this town and I'm really scared. So I thought I would come here and read but you guys were here. And you guys are so cool like I know you have powers and stuff but - it's lame. I'm just kinda….me."

"Sorry, well you can still come here any time. The girls would like it." Steven said, taking her hand and pulling her up. "We have lived here a long time but we don't have a lot of friends, maybe you could be a friend or at least someone nice to talk to. The only people the girls know are all teens and really, the girls need someone their own age and hey, you never know, you could like all of them or none of them. But the beach is always welcome for you to come and read."

"Can I really met them?" she said, holding her book to her chest.

"Totally!"

That was the day they met Connie.


End file.
